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Famous ‘MAGA’ dress designer forced to remove Trump signs from business

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A Virginia shop owner lamented how he “started a flag” war when his business was ordered to remove signs supporting former President Donald Trump because of a complaint.

Stelier dress designer Andre Soriano got a legal notice after a local in Occoquan called the police to complain but him exercising his First Amendment rights. Soriano is known for creating the “Make America Great Again” gown famously worn by singer-songwriter Joy Villa at the 2017 Grammy Awards.

“I actually started a flag war here in Occoquan, Virginia,” the business owner told Fox News Digital in a video interview.

“The reason I put my Trump dress outside is, so I don’t have to encounter [this],” said Soriano who was joined by his friend, political activist Audra Johnson who recorded the bizarre scene with the woman.

“I have a video of her hiding in a bush,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “I don’t know what she was doing.”

“The duo said the woman was hysterically crying in the street and that she did call the police. A lone officer removed the woman from the store’s entrance and Johnson said she was taken to a local restaurant to ‘calm her down,'” Fox News reported.

The designer, who immigrated to the US as a teen with his family from the Philippines, feels his American freedom is being compromised.

“As an American citizen, as a First Amendment in our great nation, you can express yourself by putting your signs in your home and expressing who you are as an individual, whether it’s religion, whether it’s politics or anything that you feel, without harming anyone,” Soriano said. “That’s just the freedom of artistic expression and being free in America, and nowadays, you can’t even express that.”

The city ordered the signs removed after the encounter with the “crying” woman who said she was “very offended” by the pro-Trump signs Soriano and Johnson live above the business and hung some signs there but the city soon told them to remove some signage as well.

“We’re just trying our hardest to not get fines we can’t pay,” Johnson said.

“We follow rules,” Soriano said. “We don’t disrespect anyone.”

The fashion designer said he had worked for celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Courtney Love as well as Rihanna and Pharrell Williams. However, after designing the MAGA dress that Vila wore, he said he was blacklisted.

“That’s when our lives changed,” he said. “We had death threats.”

“There are a lot of celebrities in Hollywood that are very divisive, and they didn’t really like President Trump,” he added, noting he lost business and friendships over his artistic expression.

Johnson also lost potential gigs as an actress after photographs appeared of her with a sign that read “Trump is your president” as she marched at Rosa Parks Circle in Grand Rapids, Michigan,

“We’re in an industry where we can’t just say what we want or how we feel,” Johnson said. “We don’t fit the mold.”

For Soriano, who emphasized, “I love America,” he believes this nation is the “land of the free, not the land of what people think.”

“I’m an American designer,” he said. “I am free to express and create whatever I want.”

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